If ever there was a poster girl for a healthy lifestyle Phindi Gule-Burley is it. The chemical engineer turned IT professional and radio personality told Debbie Reynolds why keeping fit is the most unselfish thing you can do
Waiting for Phindi Gule-Burley at a coffee shop in her uMdloti ’hood I’m expecting to be intimidated by the woman who has run five Comrades and the entire length of the KwaZulu-Natal coast. Not to mention that she has her own lifestyle business, a weekly slot on East Coast Radio, and is a SABC sports commentator.
The slender elegant woman who waves to the waitress as she walks in is not quite what I imagined. Warm, effusive and funny, she’s more inspiring than daunting and looks much younger than her 43 years.
Born and schooled in Soweto, Phindi studied chemical engineering and information technology mainly to please her parents. Realising IT was the lesser of the two evils, she worked for several years at SAA as a computer and analyst programmer. Not convinced this was her calling, she made the cheeky move of asking Metro FM for a job.
“I always had the radio in my office tuned to Metro FM and having been involved in public speaking at school, I thought there was no harm in trying,” says Phindi. “I went for an audition on Tuesday and on Thursday got the call saying I was reading the news bulletins that Saturday.”
From working nights and weekends, she went on to learn more about radio production, gave up her “day job”, and progressed to working with several radio stations, including Voice of Soweto, YFM, Gagasi FM and ECR.
But first she had to convince her “very traditional” family she was serious about broadcasting. “I was given their blessing as long as I educated myself accordingly, so I did a media studies course through Unisa,” she laughs. “I always tell young people you never know when Lady Luck is going to strike, so always be ready for the opportunities that come your way.”
While still living in Joburg she landed a spot presenting ECR’s weekend Global Hot Hits which meant commuting every week. When offered a weekday show, she couldn’t resist and moved to the sunny east coast where she lived happily ever after at ECR until 2007.
Always keen to learn, Phindi did a marketing course and then opened her own communications and marketing business which has now morphed into a lifestyle consultancy called FitU. To understand how she got there, it’s time to introduce her inspiration – her husband Kevin Burley, who Lady Luck steered in Phindi’s direction.
“I had gone to Joburg to visit my family and missed my flight home,” she says. “I was very annoyed and not in any space to be sociable when I noticed a guy at the airport coffee shop smiling at me.
“He finally came over and asked if he could join me and I had to be polite and say yes. We got chatting and I found out he was from the UK but working in South Africa.”
Several long-distance phone calls and visits later, Phindi Gule became Mrs Phindi Gule-Burley and the running bug bit.
“Kevin is a keen runner and so I found myself getting up at ungodly hours to support him at events such as the Comrades. It was being at the ultra marathon as a spectator in 2011 that got Phindi hooked.
“I asked Kevin if he could help me run the race the next year and his initial reaction was for me to first take baby steps. Considering the only exercise I did then was yoga, he was quite right in being apprehensive for me.” Applying her usual grit and determination Phindi qualified to run in the 2012 Comrades Marathon, which she finished with just 57 seconds to spare.
“Thank goodness women can multitask, because in those last minutes to the finish line I was crying, praying and running all at the same time!”
Since then she’s completed another four Comrades, along with a 900km charity run for Liv Village and several other marathons.
“What I love so much about these events is that the runners come from all walks of life,” says Phindi. “There’ll be a cleaner running with a CEO and we’re all moving together in the same direction with a common goal. I just wish we could wake up every day with that same mindset.”
With her experience, the Comrades Association asked her to create seminars around the country aimed specifically at women who wanted to enter the gruelling race.
“I realised that the existing training programmes weren’t realistic for most women who worked and looked after the home and children,” says Phindi.
Having met so many “ordinary” women doing extraordinary things, she saw the gap for her new venture – FitU with Phindi Gule – incorporating healthy lifestyle radio broadcasts, wellness days, fitness seminars, a newspaper column and, coming up, a TV show and her own studio.
“I’m all about getting women active and healthy, both physically and mentally,” says Phindi. “And think about it, if the wife and mother gets it right, then the whole family will.”
She points out that running a marathon is not everyone’s cup of tea, but they need to get off the couch and find that thing they love doing. “A healthy lifestyle is about balance – eating right, being active and staying positive. Taking time to do these things is not selfish. What is selfish, is not taking care of yourself when you have people who love you.”
In October Phindi opens her women’s health studio at Moses Mabhida Stadium. “The approach will be a kind of one-stop shop offering everything from training and fitness classes to nutrition, a healthy food service, health advice specific to women, and life coaching.” Then watch out for her programme, FitU with Phindi Gule, which will air soon on DSTV’s channel 157.
Her last words of wisdom: “Stop thinking about what you should be doing and just do it. Get up, take that baby step, prioritise and invest in your health because while you might be too busy chasing the dollar, you need to know that health can’t be bought. You can’t save the world, but you may save yourself.”